PRAYAGRAJ: Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra again reached out to Nishads on Sunday after her 2019 boat ride on the Ganga to woo the community. Priyanka said that the state and central government was only working for the welfare of big business houses and not for those who had voted them to power.
Priyanka arrived in Prayagraj for the second time in the past 10 days and met people of the Nishad community at Baswar village of the trans-Yamuna area of the district. Earlier, she had visited the Sangam on Mauni Amawasya on February 11.
She said like the agricultural laws, the laws applicable to rivers are to the benefit of industrialists rather than fishermen.
“Farmers are agitating against the unjustified laws and here, you people were targeted. All this is because the government has forgotten that your vote gave them the power to rule and now they have forgotten you and is instead working for the welfare of industrialists,” she alleged.
“It is not that the government is oblivious about the problems of farmers, but it doesn’t want to help them,” Priyanka added.
“Policy makers across the world understand that people dependent on forests or rivers for their livelihood can never harm them. In contrast, the big business houses are not dependent on these natural resources and therefore exploit them,” she said.
You have the wisdom of how to earn your livelihood while conserving natural resources because you have been doing this for generations, she added.
Talking to women attending the small meeting, she said, “I am also a woman and can understand your agony, both the district administration and police should be ashamed for beating you. I have seen the videos of how they had come here and how your boats were damaged, we will take up this issue and fight for you.”
“I have come to understand your problems, to see the ground reality and to assure you that I will stand by you and will fight for you. We will also provide you all legal support,” she said.
She said the Congress party will come back to power in the state and will protect the rights of the Nishad community. Congress legislative party leader Aradhana Mishra said the party would raise the issue in the assembly. UPCC president Ajay Kumar Lallu and senior leader Pramod Tiwari had also accompanied Priyanka, who also visited the ghat and saw the damaged boats.